Gorgon gas project 'environmental vandalism'

Greens leader Bob Brown says the Government's approval of the Gorgon gas project off the Western Australian coast is environmental vandalism.

The project involves injecting 3.5 million tonnes of C02 a year into a reservoir under Barrow Island. The carbon capture technique will cost Chevron and its partners more than $1 billion and is the biggest geo-sequestration project of its type ever undertaken.

But Environment Minister Peter Garrett says he is satisfied that the $50 billion project will not cause unacceptable damage to the local environment.

He has given approval to the project's joint venture partners - Chevron, Exxon Mobil and Shell - as long as they meet 28 new conditions to protect the Barrow Island ecosystem.

This includes the protection of the endangered flatback turtle and detailed surveys will have to be completed of Barrow Island and the surrounding marine environment before and after construction.

But Mr Brown has described the conditions as window dressing.

"How can you build a plant like this on the rookery of an endangered turtle and expect there's going to be no outcome for that species?" he asked.

"How can you have 3,000 people on the island and expect there's not going to be introduced species? It just goes against environmental common sense, let alone science."

Mr Brown says the Gorgon partners could have moved the project and its plans for a carbon capture and storage facility to the mainland, and the Government should have forced them to do so.

"There were good alternatives to this project but there's no alternative to Barrow Island," he said.

The Greens say Mr Garrett was left with no choice because several lucrative deals to export the gas to China and India have already been signed.

While Mr Garrett has been weighing up his decision, other members of the Federal Government have been bragging about the deal's potential to boost the economy and create 6,000 jobs.

Mr Garrett denies he has been swayed by the project's economic benefits.

He says he was not required to consider alternative sites under this approval process but he has indicated he would like to be more involved in similar decisions in the future.

Meanwhile the Opposition's Greg Hunt is happy the project looks set to go ahead.

"We wanted to see that there was a clear set of protections both for land-based animals and also the marine environment. Those conditions which we set out, appear to have been met," he said.

The head of the Gorgon Project, Colin Beckett from Chevron Australia, says they are confident they can meet the new conditions.